The field of the invention is trays for filing and stacking mail, including letters, small parcels, larger parcels and flat mail.
As the volume of mail and private shipping increases, there is an increasing need for auxiliary devices to aid delivery personnel in delivering letters and correspondence.
For the most part, delivery vehicles have been lacking in such devices except for some standard trays located behind the driver and along the interior sides of the vehicle. Delivery personnel are being required to handle stacks of various different kinds of mail. For example, one type of mail is D.P.S. (Delivery Point Sequence) mail, which is machine sorted and sequenced for delivery. Another type of mail is flat mail, including magazines and larger envelopes. Some mail cannot be treated as D.P.S. mail because it has been addressed by hand, is odd-sized, or is not properly coded for handling as D.P.S. mail. This results in three or more stacks of mail to be handled by a delivery person along with driving duties.
As items are delivered, it is typical for the delivery person to page through a stack of mail to retrieve mail for an address or a group of addresses. In some cases, the trays for holding this mail, are not constructed for mounting in the most convenient positions relative to the driver of a delivery vehicle. The driver/delivery person may be required to turn around too far and too often, and this becomes a cause of fatigue and loss of efficiency.